By Stephen Kelly

Copyright thesun

MUNSTER kicked-off their URC campaign in impressive fashion and Craig Casey took the opportunity to take a playful dig at his former teammate.

Casey captained Munster to victory as new boss Clayton McMillan started life in the hot seat in the perfect fashion.

And the scrum-half — standing in as skipper with Lions star man Tadhg Beirne not back on playing duty yet — was one of four players to cross the whitewash in the bonus-point win over the Scarlets in Llanelli.

Mike Haley, Dan Kelly and Thomas Ahern did likewise and the Reds will now hope for a Welsh double when Cardiff are the visitors for Thomond Park’s first URC game of the new term next Saturday night.

Former Munster and Ireland star Simon Zebo was on the Premier Sports panel for his former team’s opening URC fixture.

The 35-year-old retired before the start of last season, leaving the province having returned to his first professional club in 2021.

The tricky winger turned pundit was impressed with Munster’s dominant showing in Wales.

While interviewing Casey and Shane Daly after the match, Zebo complimented: “We’ve got the two real stars of the team, no more talking about the forwards! Craig Casey and Shane Daly, lads, ye looked super sharp out there today.

“The handling was on point from the get go. Where was this a couple of years ago when I was playing?!”

Casey took the opportunity to make a hilarious jab at Zebo, hinting that the great team performance wouldn’t have been possible had Zebo not retired.

Casey quipped: “We just got rid of the deadwood. We worked everything out in pre-season without yourself. Everything started to click.”

Having captained Ireland this summer, Casey was delighted to take on the role for his province and the Limerick man marked the honour by opening the scoring ten minutes in after a lineout and driving maul.

He said: “It was a really proud day for me and my family captaining the side and the forwards put in a hell of a shift. We asked them to deliver and they really fronted up.

“We knew it was going to be difficult but we want to build on a positive pre-season. I think we did that.”

Munster went in 13-0 ahead at the break after a couple of JJ Hanrahan penalties. Haley’s converted try after good work from Jack Crowley and Thaakir Abrahams then put the visitors in firm control with a 20-point advantage.

They did not have it all their own way from then on as Blair Murray, Ellis Lee and Taine Plumtree all touched down for Scarlets. But the home team never got close enough as debutant Kelly and Ahern both scored in between to keep Munster’s noses in front.

And at the end they had claimed an eighth successive triumph over the Scarlets in the perfect start for New Zealander McMillan. Another star performer was fellow Kiwi Alex Nankivell.

Happy to start in such a positive manner, the centre told Premier Sports: “First one after pre-season is always really exciting. We’ve been in the hurt locker for about two months.

“The boys are really excited just to get into it and it’s been a great build-up with the new staff coming in.

“Really happy with that, obviously there’s a lot to work on but it’s a great building point.”